Claim CA113:

Quotes from many noncreationist authorities show that evolutionists
themselves find many various failures of evolution.

Source:

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here?
Brooklyn, NY,
pg. 15.
Various and numerous other sources.

Response:

Quotes are very easy to misuse to give a false impression of what an
author means. Many people develop their ideas over long passages, and
no single quote can do justice to their argument. Many people,
especially scientists, play devil's advocate with their own ideas, so
some of their quotes will say exactly the opposite of the point they
are supporting. In other cases, good summary quotes exist, but the
quoter is either unable or unwilling to find and use them. It is
extremely easy to find out-of-context quotes that do damage to a
person's main ideas, even unintentionally. Quotes should
probably be regarded with more skepticism than any other references.

Creationists use quotes as appeals to authority. They apparently see
the printed word as a weighty authority. In science, though, the
ultimate authority is the evidence itself, so that is what writers
refer to. Quotes cannot substitute for evidence.

Appealing to authority is a misuse of quotations. The vast majority of
good writing, when it refers to other people's work, summarizes the
work and gives a reference to the original. In professional science
writing, references are ubiquitous, but direct quotes are very rare.

Summarizing someone's work, rather than quoting it, shows
understanding. Many creationists are limited to quoting because they
have no idea what the author really means. In fact, most creationists
probably repeat quotes without even having read the original author's
work. Darwin's quote about the eye, for
example, would never
be repeated in its usual abbreviated form by an honest person who has
read the pages that follow it. If a person cannot understand a work
well enough to summarize it, he or she should not be talking about it
at all.

Even an accurate and in-context quote can be used to mislead. Many
quotes are out of date, for example, and talk about our ignorance in
areas of which we are no longer ignorant. Other quotes are from
creationists, but they appear in a context that groups them with
mainstream scientists.